Remember being a kid on your birthday? Your parents might wake you up by singing a song. Mine would always bring me the “birthday hat,” which looked like a giant orange cake with a face, and I would wear it all morning. You’d get a fancy breakfast, and when you went to school most of your friends would wish you a happy birthday. Your whole class would sing happy birthday to you, and your mom might have made cupcakes or bought a cookie cake for you to share with the class. Then when you got home or the next weekend, you’d have the actual birthday party part. If you were a lucky kid you’d get one of those bounce houses or it would take place at a bowling alley. You’d get the birthday song for a third time, and all your friends would bring presents. They didn’t leave empty handed either, you’d make them gift bags full of nail polish or cheap dollar store toys. It was a day you looked forward to all year.
Flash forward to now. As a college student, birthdays are drastically different. My birthday is on Thursday, and how am I celebrating? By taking not one, not two, but three midterms. I don’t have the time (or the money) to throw a birthday party. My parents aren’t going to wake me up, they live four hours away. I might get a text from them wishing me a happy birthday. Last year my roommate was awesome and ordered me some Insomnia Cookies, and eating them while studying for a Chem test was my entire birthday celebration.
When I think to how my parents and other adults in my life celebrate their birthdays, I can see how this change starts to happen. Birthdays go from being the best day as a kid to just another day as an adult. And that’s okay. For one thing, birthdays come faster and faster. When I was seven, I had to wait what felt like centuries until my next birthday. But now I feel like I’m having a birthday all the time. That may be why they feel less and less like a precious thing that needs to be treasured.
And there’s still special days to be treasured. I’m lucky and my birthday next year (my 21st) falls on a Saturday so I’ll have the chance to actually do something. The last day of finals are a celebration I never got to experience in elementary school. There’s loads of basketball games, holidays, promotions, reunions, and personal celebrations, that while maybe not as huge as a child’s birthday, bring back some of those feelings. Any event in your life can become a celebration when you’re an adult because you choose what to celebrate, and you don’t have to wait all year for a particular day. And it’s almost better that way!